I'm Back on the Blog: Church, State, Left, Right, and my children's generation

How can I be a minister and a lawyer? I have been asked several times how I can be a minister and a lawyer. What has one to do with the other? Aren’t the two vocations on a collision course with each other?

This is similar to the question: “what has religion to do with politics?” Isn’t religion supposed to stay out of politics and politics/government to keep its hands off of religion?

I have a couple of observations about why our ideas about separation of “church and state” are often so out of touch with the realities of “church and state.” It usually seems to me that when someone assumes that lawyering and ministry conflict, that this assumption is based on a misconception of religion and what being religious is all about. And, this misconception is that religion is “apart from life, and somehow insulated from life.” Therefore, anything that is really in the center of life, like politics, sex, love and hate, smoking pork/drinking beer, is foreign to religion. This antiseptic view of religion isolates religion from the dynamic forces of life. This is basically liberalism’s (modernism’s) view of religion, and many religious people accept that as the way to relate their religion to social and political realities.

But, in reality, religion is talked about regularly by politicians, even if what they mostly talk about is the fact that “they are religious.” Religion, if it has any force, does affect public affairs for better or worse. Religion, if it is Biblical, can’t help but comment on politics, since issues of abuse of power and social justice are right at the heart of Jewish and Christian tradition.

Now, if I am right that true religion is a dynamic force at the very heart of life: politics, work, love, sex, joy, hate, wine and song, then the real issue is not “the separation of religious communion and state” but “the nature of the relationship of religious communions to state.” Which is simply another way of talking about the relationship between religion and life. George McDonald once wrote: “Religion is not a part of life, but life itself. It is life essential.”

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” And, the God Jesus served spoke through the prophet saying: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength.” For Christians and Jews, religion is life essential. Everything else has to find its place around this central commitment and orientation, including our attitude to the nation we live in.

In modern thinking, religion has become a subject among other subjects, and in modern post-enlightenment thinking, religion is accepted but kept in check by commitment to a rational, scientific way of thought. And, though I think true religion is much more than that, I can’t help but respect this modern, scientific approach, because of the havoc reaped by false religion over the centuries – religion that was “political will clothed in sacred dress.” Marx criticism of religion as ‘the opiate of the masses’ is a deep truth that should be embraced by Christians and Jews and all religious people of good will. Religion has often been hijacked by the interests of power to control, oppress, and conquer some of the deepest interests in human life: justice, decency, and dignity. And, if you really look at the origins of the doctrine of separation of church and state in the U.S., you will see that the founders of this country were very much afraid of the oppressive forces of religion which were against free thought running government. I think they sold "separation of church and state" to the public as "freedom of religion," but it seems what motivated many deep down was a yearning that government be "free from religion."

But, knowing that religion is regularly in the dynamic center of life, and knowing that rational controls need to be placed on religion due to its alienating, falsifying, and oppressive potential – where does this leave us? In what has been called a “post-modern” state of mind (that reminds me of an old Billy Joel song: “New York State of Mind:” great song; listen to it).

It leaves us with a sense that the right and the left are not making sense of the real forces that move and shape human life. It leaves us with a sense that the criticism of religion by science and the criticism of science by religion are both worth listening to, but that the truth is not that easy to grasp.

It is so encouraging for me to hear the younger generation figuring out the way my generation didn’t figure out that not only is the fundamentalist way inadequate, but also that the modernist way has serious shortcomings as well. It just seems like young people who think these days are saying things more in touch with reality than when I was growing up. I see many younger people who think wanting to reach a way that makes sense, refusing to accept solutions that don’t make sense. I think something is going to come of this in politics and religion. The left and the right are becoming worn out platforms, not just in politics, but in the living of life. The younger generation is listening for something real and something true and something that just plain makes sense. I’ve got some news for the younger generation: you may have listened long enough; it’s time to start speaking some truths you are coming to understand. Go ahead and express your understanding of things, even if it is still in formation. I don’t think your parents and grandparents are going to speak it as clearly as you can. Time to grow up and do the things we haven’t been able to. That is the challenge for every generation.

I have resumed blogging, because after a week of no blogging, I was ready to start trying to make sense of things again through blogging. I deleted the blog at first, but then found you can reinstate what you have deleted. So, I simply punched "undelete blog" and here I am. Most decisions are not that easy to reverse.

Link to Fourth United Presbyterian Bible Blog

This is the address of my church blog:

http://wwwrevghwaters4thunited.blogspot.com/

Last Post: Thoughts and Hopes

When I think about the life I have lived, I have always been thinking on things, trying to figure out how to do something better, or trying to understand why I am the way I am or why someone else is the way they are or why things are the way they are and how they might be different. I am always at work, whether I mean to be or not, in trying to understand things. And, my thinking has always pushed me into a mystery where thinking stops and has to give way to wonder. Another way to say this is that this drive I have to understand leads towards a mystery in which the One who created all life dwells. However, my thinking only leads me in this direction when it is characterized by trust and hope. When my thinking becomes characterized or fueled by distrust and despair (sin), I think myself away from the mystery and "into a corner."

As H. Richard Niebuhr has written, life comes down to one basic thing: whether you respond to the "power that brought you forth" with trust or distrust. Whether you view life with trust or distrust; whether you view others with trust or distrust; whether you experience deep down that the Power that brought all things into being is gracious or callous (or, perhaps cruel or indifferent).

If this is the deepest response of a human being that colors all other responses we make day to day, do we make it consciously or unconsciously? Clearly, it is a mixture of conscious and unconscious feeling/thought. If this is the basic response that determines all other responses in life, it is significant to note that the Psalm writer, who is surely our guide in spiritual matters, struggles often between a basic feeling of thanksgiving and complaint towards God. But, complaint about God's seeming distance and complaint about God's slowness in acting, is not the same thing as distrust of God. In fact, the act of complaining in the Psalms shows that the Psalm writer continues to place his hopes in God, continues to see God as his salvation amidst times of sorrow and even bitterness, and continues to believe that God is well-disposed towards him and his people.

And, as I close this last post on this blog, I end with one question: can a person who doesn't claim to "believe in God" be making a positive response to God in his or her living without being consciously aware of the "theological" meaning of life? I, along with H. Richard Niebuhr and Karl Rahner, think that the answer is clearly "yes." Jesus is the one who said: "It is not those who say, "Lord, Lord," who will enter into the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my father who is in heaven." I give thanks for all those who are walking in that mercy and fairness and love intended for us all by the One Creator, Judge and Redeemer of all life. I give thanks for all goodness in human life, whether it comes from those who profess to have faith in God or those who do not. In the end, the prayer that moves my heart is: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." That God be given God's due on earth; that God's righteousness be known on earth; that God's good ways be manifest in human life; that God may no more have to suffer the injustice that is done on earth; that the One true and holy and kind and wise being might be honored and loved and respected and thanked for bearing all of humanity's struggle and trouble and sin. That God might finally have another Sabbath, and a chance to sit back and look at all creation and behold that it is very, very good. That is the hope of my heart.

Coffee

I haven’t had coffee for two months or so now because I was having some minor stomach trouble. But, I had some this morning! I had forgotten how much I love coffee, just how good it really is! After my first couple of sips, I found myself elated and thinking: “I will give up whatever I have to give up as long as I can drink coffee! I mean, if I have to cut back to one job to get my stomach in order, then I’ll do that!”

I was almost like the prodigal son returning home who thought: “I’ll be happy to live in the servant quarters, just as long as I can stay at home!”

Well, I am going a little overboard in talking about career changes and all that just to make sure I don’t have to give up coffee again. But, sometimes it is little experiences like this that really get us thinking about our lives. Sometimes realizing how wonderful a simple pleasure is makes us give thanks for our lives, which are not always so simple.

I remember my Dad, after he had lost his ability to walk, saying to me: “Don’t ever pass up the chance to take a good walk.” Or, as Joni Mitchell sings: “You don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”

Strange what a couple of good sips of coffee can get you thinking about.

Afraid of change; afraid of staying the same?

I asked a couple of posts ago: "Can human beings really change?" Now, it occurs to me to ask: "Can human beings possibly stay the same?"

We change to survive, don't we? And, then again, there is some continuity in our history that makes life meaningful. Without this continuity (commitment, faithfulness, loyalty, integrity, consistency), nothing much endures or is accomplished. But, this continuity has to walk hand-in-hand (befriend) change,or else it is a rigid, life-killing continuity.

Here are the words from a song called What A Good Boy by the "Bare Naked Ladies." I always liked it. It certainly questions outer expectations that are placed upon us, but also the internal struggle to be, well, who we really need to be. And, amidst all that there is the fear of change, and, yes, the fear of staying the same and the yearning to find someone who will stay with us through all of that.

"When I was born, they looked at me and said,
What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said,
What a good girl, what a what a smart girl, what a pretty girl.
We've got these chains that hang around our necks
people want to strangle us with them before we take our first breath.
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same,
when temptation calls, we just look away.

Chorus

"This name is the hairshirt I wear
and this hairshirt is woven from your brown hair.
This song is the cross that I bear,
bear it with me, bear with me, bear with me, be with me tonight,
I know that it isn't right, but be with me tonight.

"I go to school, I write exams,
if I pass, if I fail, if I drop out,
does anyone give a damn?
And if they do, they'll soon forget 'cause it won't take much for me
to show my life ain't over yet.

"I wake up scared, I wake up strange.
I wake up wondering if anything in my life is ever going to change.
I wake up scared, I wake up strange
and everything around me stays the same.

Chorus

"I couldn't tell you that I was wrong,
chickened out, grabbed a pen and paper, sat down and I wrote this song.
I couldn't tell you that you were right,
so instead I looked in the mirror,
watched TV, laid away all night.

"We've got these chains, hang 'round our necks,
people want to strangle us with them before we take our first breath.
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same when temptation calls ...

Chorus

"When I was born, they looked at me and said;
What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said;
What a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl, hey. . ."

Word from St. Clement

"O Lord, help us to be children of quietness and heirs of peace."

Can Human Beings Really Change?

This question haunts history and often haunts our personal lives as well. "Can he, can she, can I really change?" It was this question, I believe, that haunted Nicodemas, and why the old respected teacher came by night to seek wisdom from the young, country prophet. And, this prophet, who was more than a prophet said to Nicodemas: "You must be born again . . . of the Spirit of God."

I like the language "born again." It conveys the radical starting over, giving up, and newness of life from God that comes among us and to us in Jesus.

But, we, like Nicodemas, think and feel: "But, how can a man really start over (or, as Nicodemas literally said: "Can a man go back into his mother's womb?")? Or, as Jackson Browne sings: "The future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems, it would be easier sometimes to change the past."

"Can he ever change? Can she ever change? Can I change?"

In a British novel I was reading yesterday, one of the characters gives an opinion on this question saying: "No, but people can learn to manage themselves a bit better."

From the human side, maybe that is a pretty good answer. Maybe it is when we learn to manage ourselves a little bit better that the soil is prepared for change. Maybe that is all we can do. Learn to manage ourselves a little bit better and hope for the change that comes from beyond, the Spirit that blows where it wills, and nobody knows where it starts and where it ends. It takes faith to believe we can learn to manage ourselves better, and faith to believe that that prepares the ground for a transformation that we can't manage but only accept with thanksgiving and wonder.

*For the story of Nicodemas, see the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the first part of chapter 3.